Copper isotopic record in soils and tree rings near a copper smelter, Copperbelt, Zambia

Lead, zinc, and copper redistributions in soils along a deposition gradient from emissions of a Pb-Ag smelter decommissioned 100 years ago

“…Except for S4, all profiles showed a similar vertical distribution, with an increasing light isotope contribution at depth as observed in (Bigalke et al, 2011;Mihaljevič et al, 2018) for natural soils.…”

“…Furthermore, Pb isotopes have been used for tracing the transport and redistribution of Pb in the atmosphere (Desenfant et al, 2006;Hamelin et al, 1997;Shotyk et al, 2002;Véron et al, 1999;Weiss et al, 2002). More recently, Cu and Zn isotopes were used to link increased metal concentrations in soils or sediments to the emissions of metallurgic plants (Araújo et al, 2018;Bigalke et al, 2010a;Juillot et al, 2011;Kříbek et al, 2018;Mihaljevič et al, 2018;Sivry et al, 2008;Sonke et al, 2008;Thapalia et al, 2010), or for sourcing metal particles from mining and tailing sites (Borrok et al, 2009;Kimball et al, 2009;Song et al, 2016;Viers et al, 2018).…”

Tracing Copper Migration in the Tongling Area through Copper Isotope Values in Soils and Waters

“…Soils show a range of 65 Cu values, from −0.87 to 1.10‰ (Table 3). The range is within reported values for soils derived from shale [14] and other siliciclastic rocks [4,8,9,10,11,13,31,32,33,34,35]. In general, the samples from the top 5 cm of the soils displayed relatively consistent values (0.08 ± 0.16‰; n = 17) greater than 1 km from mining activity, whereas samples taken within closer proximity and down hydrogeologic gradient on the eastern side (termed DHGES samples from this point) have a higher mean, range, and are not as consistent (0.45 ± 0.56‰; n = 15).…”

“…Transition metal and metal isotope geochemistry are relatively new techniques that have been applied to understand the rates, dispersion, and ability to trace sources of metal release induced by surface and subsurface mining activities. It has been shown that copper isotope values can provide key insights into the kinetics of the reactions related to weathering and dispersion of Cu due to oxidative destruction of sulfide minerals [4,5,6,7,8,9], along with tracing airborne contaminants from smelters and mine tailings [10,11]. These studies have demonstrated that the copper isotope compositions of different components in the biosphere are highly sensitive to inputs of metal from different contamination sources.…”

The Influence of Environmental Pollution and Drought on the Satisfaction With Life of Entrepreneurs in Zambia’s Mining Sector

“…In these regions, resource scarcity from water and land leads to food insecurity and forced migration ( Nkomoki, Bavorová, & Banout, 2019 ). This suggests that the natural environment is threatened, and human society is at greater risk because its survival is threatened ( Bose-O’Reilly et al, 2018 , Mihaljevič et al, 2018 ). A human being’s survival is dependent on the natural environment capacity to sustain well-being, including food, shelter, and clothing ( Brundtland et al, 1987 , Krefis et al, 2018 ).…”